Solid Energy names Glencore’s Dan Clifford as CEO

March 11 (BusinessDesk) –
Solid Energy, the unprofitable state-owned coal miner, has
named an Australian mining manager at Glencore Xstrata as
its chief executive after a year-long search following the
departure of Don Elder.

Dan Clifford, general manager of
Glencore’s Ulan Complex of coal mines in New South Wales
will take up the role in May, said Solid Energy’s acting
chair Pip Dunphy. The mining engineer has more than 20
years’ experience in Australian and South African mines,
and had experience in reviving ailing operations, she
said.

“Dan has successfully restructured mining
operations to be more efficient and economic and leaves
behind, at Ulan, a significantly improved health and safety
performance across that operation which produces 11 million
tonnes of coal a year, with a workforce of about 900
people,” she said.

He will take over from Garry Diack,
who was named acting CEO after Elder’s departure.

Last
month, Solid Energy reported a first-half net loss of $40.9
million, an improvement from the loss of $318.2 million a
year earlier, when it recognised impairment charges of some
$222.7 million.

Under Elder, the company expanded its
vision to include converting lignite to diesel, briquettes
and fertiliser. Tumbling global prices for coal left the
business with two little income for the amount of its debt
and it required a government bailout.

Plans to partially
privatise the company were abandoned and it has
substantially scaled back its operations, selling or
shuttering experimental product lines and pursuing coal
mining only at its most commercially viable
sites.

The Wellington-based BusinessDesk team led by former Bloomberg Asian top editor Jonathan Underhill and Qantas Award-winning journalist and commentator Pattrick Smellie provides a daily news feed for a serious business audience.

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